It was loosely based upon the design of the original Earth sea-going vessel RMS Titanic. This was primarily a tourist vessel and it is unclear whether Max Capricorn, the owner, was aware of the name's significance: the Doctor himself noted that it was a very bad for a ship. The ship had a humanoid crew, supplemented by a contingent of information and service robots called Hosts, who offered assistance and advice to the passengers. Like the ill-fated vessel that sank in 1912, this ship met with a horrific accident.

Unknown to the passengers and crew, Capricorn had arranged for the Titanic to be destroyed in Earth orbit to take revenge on the board of directors of his company, who had forced him out of his own firm. Captain Hardaker, terminally ill, had agreed to pilot the vessel in return for his family being taken care of. Capricorn, himself a cyborg, also boarded the vessel but expected to be protected from the disaster and later rescued.

Hardaker orchestrated matters so that the ship's shields would be lowered as three small asteroids approached the vessel. The resulting impact killed most of the crew and passengers (including Hardaker), but did not destroy the vessel outright. Capricorn had arranged for the Hosts' programming to be changed so they would kill any survivors. Over the next few hours, the Doctor and his friends, assisted by the Titanic's only surviving bridge crewmember, Midshipman Alonso Frame, worked to stop it from crashing on Earth, which the Doctor feared would cause an explosion strong enough to wipe out all life on the planet.

Efforts to stabilise the orbit failed and the Titanic entered the Earth's atmosphere. After defeating Capricorn and rendering the Hosts harmless, the Doctor narrowly prevented the Titanic from crashing into Buckingham Palace in London, and started the vessel's secondary storm drive by using the heat of re-entry to fire it up, returning it to space. The vessel, under the temporary command of Alonso Frame, was salvaged after he had sent a distress call. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)

In a parallel world created by the time beetle, the Doctor, having died a year earlier than in the main universe, was not present to stop the Titanic from crashing to Earth in the heart of London. Although the resulting nuclear explosion did not wipe out all life on Earth, it destroyed London and irradiated southern England, forcing much of the country to move elsewhere as refugees. This led to a series of events that resulted in it becoming a police state. (TV: Turn Left)

The idea that the owner and captain of the Titanic so much as inadvertently contributed to its sinking is also espoused in the 1997 hit film Titanic, which showed the ocean liner's sinking. In the film, White Star Line owner Bruce Ismay is shown pressuring captain Edward Smith into speeding up the maiden voyage, which eventually makes the iceberg harder to dodge. Ismay was also roundly criticised in the press in real life as a coward, especially after the sinking.

Though not a steamship like its namesake, the spaceship Titanic also takes after it by having a similar outward appearance, particularly in its upper decks and its four funnels despite having no steam to vent.

Concept artworks showing the exterior of the spaceship Titanic were illustrated. One of these images was dated 10 July2007 and prominently featured a nebula. "The original design was done completely in Photoshop," explained Peter McKinstry, who drew the image, "and was then transferred to Painter to add the nebula background and make it all a bit more traditional and painterly." The same image was ultimately printed onto canvas and hung in the background of a set used as the ship's interior. (ImageFX magazine, October 2008, p. 60)